I always wanted to be an inventor when I grew up. What could be more fun than creating something completely new? Thankfully, the world isn’t relying on little old me to come up with the next big thing. No, we’ve got plenty of people much more qualified to think up interesting toys for the likes of us to buy.

If we’re really lucky, the new toy on the block will actually be useful, too. And that’s just what Bubblescope is for, taking panoramic photos with the iPhone….

Tom Lawton is an inventor with a past of both success and failure. We think his latest creation, Bubblescope, might just be a winner though.

This handy attachment could in theory work with any smartphone, but it is very much suited to an iPhone. A Bubblescope allows photographers to take panoramic shots without the need to manually sew separate photos together in software.

Now we’re no experts when it comes to making things capture light and kick out an image, but that sounds cool!

Using mirrors, Bubblescope takes a 360 degree ponarama and saves it using its own app. The image is then uploaded to Bubblescope’s own servers for viewing as a ‘Bubblepix.’

According to Pocket-Lint, the contraption is basically just a way of sending light from a mirror to the device’s own camera.

“The concept is as simple as it is clever. At first glance, the accessory looks like a microphone that attaches to the back of your phone. It has a pop up curved mirror that captures everything around it and then sends it down toward the camera on the back of the phone.”

If that’s not cool enough, how about this? Bubblescope also does video…

While the required app is free, the Bubblescope attachment will cost £50 (around $80, dependent on taxes) when it eventually goes on sale. And if you’re the kind of person that takes a lot of panoramic photos, or indeed videos, this can’t be a bad price at all.

We just hope the quality of the final images and video is up to snuff. What do you think about Bubblescope?

Related Topics

Typo: Manually /sew/ not sow. A sow is a pig. Also, for free can’t you use Microsoft Photosynth?

MrA

Who let this guy in here?

some guy

photosynth is good, but it always crashes when you try to do a largeish panorama… if its more than just a few pics the stitching will always crash at 39% – ive never been able to stitch a full panorama with it

appletiser

the price is a bloody joke when apps like AutoStitch Panorama manage perfectly acceptable results for 1/30th of the price and that includes automatic SEWing (not sow) of images.

http://www.bubblepix.com Tom Lawton

“the price is a bloody joke” – then I am afraid, Appletiser, you miss the point completely. BubbleScope will shoot the entire bubble in a split second and also enables 360 video capture. Photosyth is OK if you have a few minutes to attempt to capture a panorama in an isolated location with zero moving objects or artefacts. BubbleScope makes panoramic photography instant, fun and effortless.

Ins0mnihack

Well said. Real-time 360 recording of events, 360 time-lapse photography, the possibilities are endless. I personally won’t be investing, but I definitely appreciate how cool it is for the price.

http://www.bubblepix.com Tom Lawton

To show you how quick & easy it is to use, here’s a shot my 3 years old son captured with my BubbleScope in his tree house. http://www.bubblescope.com/examples/bubble1.html (sorry Flash only right now – but fully iPhone/IPad friendly when we launch this autumn)